dinajean, I'd add just a bit of muted color on tiny areas, such as the flowers, dab on and wipe most of it off, much like applying varnish. Also just a tiny bit of a shimmery paint on her wings. If anyone else suggested these I'm sorry to repeat, just don't have time to read all the messages right now. Ellie

I have grown The Fairy for about 10 years and have never hard mine exhibit the growth pattern you have described. I have 3 bushes in front of a picket fence in front of my house, and in the spring I get a very good flush, with repeated flushes throughout the summer through fall. The Fairy grows about 4' X 4' in bush-type form in my Illinois garden, and has never grown like a climber. I agree with Mike; there is a Climbing Fairy and you might have one. I'd tie it up to the lattice and see if it blooms this year. You should be seeing blooms this year. When I replaced one Fairy because it never bloomed much, the replacement bush grew and bloomed a lot its first year. Help this info helps. -terry

Hi everybody! Your gardens look so sweet! I love all the things you put into yours, Chris, and your fairy looks like a fun, goofy character! Her night solar light is so high-tech and goes so well with the mosaic stepping stones you made for her. Caroline, I can't wait to see yours all put together. I also think your door is charming and I love your high-rise concept! Murraysmom, the martin house looks perfect in the iris greenery and The whole set-p is very cute. I did fairy dish gardens for all my nieces and a grand nephew a few years ago. I had a ball making them. The boy got a dinosaur garden, though! I made myself a gnome garden. I bought a little cottage made of cement with a tray roof made so you could plant onto it. I glued all my stones collected from Great Lakes Beaches onto the cottage walls, but ran out before I was done. The roof planting has not worked out for me yet. I have had trouble keeping the plants watered. I also did not have enough light, then added a fluorescent lighting system that was helping a lot. Then the light bulb burned out, then I finally ordered replacements online, and then the frame I had made for the light system came apart..... So my poor gnomes have been neglected and they need their home to be rejuvenated. After I fix the lighting system! This was their world before the disasters struck: The bare side of the house, showing how the roof works, too. The other side of the house, with stones making an awning over the window. The laxy, sleeping gnome near the dining set, with the pond in the foreground. The sky view of the garden, with the gnomes' house in the upper right, their orchard in the upper left, and a blue stone fence along the edge of the orchard. The front of the cottage, with the metal front door ajar. The wise gnome is studying. Behind him is the bathtub I made from a tiny planter I bought and added little feet (glass beads) to and I also painted the rim and fleur-de-lis on the front gold. You can see it in the first photograph, too.

I am still collecting all the bits and pieces for my Fairy Garden. I found a mate in Arkansas for my tiny rabbit that I found at a thrift shop here in N.D. I posted about Mr. Rabbit, and a frog on this post. http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/4011358/another-critter-for-the-imaginary-fairy-garden?n=2